Abstract

The article focusses the relationship between belonging and local resources in a community of the Republic of Venice. The research copes with a wealthy local family, which did buy «nativeness» at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This privilege guarantees the profitable use of various resources connected to a water channel crossing the territory of Rovato community. The episode is part of a wider contest that is useful to define the social perimeter of those entitled to local privileges, in both Rovato and Venice's republic. This story - apparently marginal - catalyzes the wider conflicts that drag on throughout the century. Such a perspective allows us to identify issues that historiography has not yet adequately problematized. Defining common goods in a collective, municipal or private sense is at the center of a widespread conflict, which involves (and sometimes creates) local bodies. The sources - above all judicial - highlight the permeability of these historical processes with respect to the actions and initiatives of individuals.